When you have recourse to divination, remember that you do not know how
it will turn out, but that you are come to inquire from the diviner.
But of what kind it is, you know when you come, if indeed you are a
philosopher. For if it is any of the things which are not in our power,
it is absolutely necessary that it must be neither good nor bad. Do not
then bring to the diviner desire or aversion ([Greek: echchlinein]): if
you do, you will approach him with fear. But having determined in your
mind that everything which shall turn out (result) is indifferent, and
does not concern you, and whatever it may be, for it will be in your
power to use it well, and no man will hinder this, come then with
confidence to the gods as your advisers. And then when any advice shall
have been given, remember whom you have taken as advisers, and whom you
will have neglected, if you do not obey them. And go to divination, as
Socrates said that you ought, about those matters in which all the
inquiry has reference to the result, and in which means are not given
either by reason nor by any other art for knowing the thing which is
the subject of the inquiry. Wherefore when we ought to share a friend’s
danger, or that of our country, you must not consult the diviner
whether you ought to share it. For even if the diviner shall tell you
that the signs of the victims are unlucky, it is plain that this is a
token of death, or mutilation of part of the body, or of exile. But
reason prevails, that even with these risks, we should share the
dangers of our friend, and of our country. Therefore attend to the
greater diviner, the Pythian god, who ejected from the temple him who
did not assist his friend, when he was being murdered.